An ATSC 3.0 ‘Testbed’ Comes With Public Media Partnership

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A 24-month collaborative effort “to explore and implement various ATSC 3.0/NextGen TV applications and use cases” has been forged between a U.S. non-commercial educational media entity and the Korea Radio Promotion Association that will help facilitate “the full adoption of ATSC 3.0” in public television stations across the U.S.


The agreement with RAPA (Korea Radio Promotion Association) brings PMVG (Public Media Venture Group) greater opportunities to explore and implement various ATSC 3.0/NextGen TV applications and use cases.

PMVG hopes to build on RAPA’s leadership experience as a primary architect of the NextGen TV transition in South Korea.

Under a Memorandum of Understanding recently agreed to by RAPA and PMVG, an ATSC 3.0 demonstration site at a low-power television station owned and operated by PMVG is being constructed.

The station, W35DZ-D in Algood, Tenn., was donated to PMVG in 2022 by Jeff Winemiller-led Lowcountry 34 Media. Constructed in collaboration with PMVG-associated WCTE-22 in Cookeville, Tenn., a PBS Member station, W35DZ-D will serve as a platform for showcasing the capabilities and benefits of ATSC 3.0 technology.

These use cases and applications will be designed to be replicated and expanded to stations throughout the public media system.

RAPA designated DigiCAP, an ATSC 3.0 solution provider based in Seoul, South Korea, to provide the necessary technology products for the demonstration station. DigiCAP will collaborate with PMVG to set up the Cookeville station and work with PMVG and RAPA to develop the applications and use cases that will run on top of the demonstration station. PMVG and RAPA will also collaborate on securing deployment capital, equipment, and new partnerships.

The Cookeville demonstration station is slated to launch in August 2023.

“We are thrilled to embark on this partnership with RAPA, DigiCAP, and WCTE Cookeville,” said PMVG CEO Marc Hand. “This collaboration will showcase the full capabilities and benefits of NextGen TV and help pave the way for new, vital business applications to sustain public media and to enable an exciting range of new services to local communities.”

Jungsu Song, CEO & Vice Chairman of RAPA, added, “RAPA has been at the forefront of efforts to roll out ATSC 3 NextGen TV, not just in South Korea but also worldwide. We are very much excited to collaborate with PMVG to showcase more applications and services running on top ATSC 3.0 to public stations in the U.S.”

Comprised of 25 public media organizations, PMVG’s sole focus is “leveraging NextGen TV and developing scalable use cases to help sustain public media’s vital services in the long term.”